President Biden on Jan. 9 in Mexico City. Photo: Hector Vivas/Getty Images
The Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Accountability announced Tuesday that it has launched an investigation into classified documents found in President Biden's former office.
Driving the news: Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, said he sent letters to the National Archives and the White House Counsel’s Office demanding information about "Biden's failure to return highly classified records from his time as vice president."
Catch up quick: The documents were found while Biden's personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet at the Penn Biden Center, which Biden periodically used from mid-2017 until the start of his 2020 campaign, the president's special counsel confirmed Monday.
- The documents were turned over to the National Archives in November.
What they're saying: Comer said National Archives learned about the documents days before the 2022 midterm elections and didn't alert the public.
- Meanwhile, writes Comer, National Archives "instigated a public and unprecedented FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago — former President Trump’s home— to retrieve presidential records."
- "[Its] inconsistent treatment of recovering classified records held by former President Trump and President Biden raises questions about political bias at the agency."
President Biden on Tuesday said he was "surprised" government records were found in his old think-tank office, and added he's cooperating fully.
Of note: Last summer, classified documents were found outside the National Archives when the FBI seized boxes of records from former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
- The Department of Justice is investigating Trump for his handling of classified information.
- Trump has falsely claimed that presidents can declassify documents "even by thinking about it."
Go deeper: Presidential Records Act and Trump search explained